Argentina’s President Javier Milei is seeking to turn Patagonia into a major destination for artificial intelligence data centres, offering international technology companies tax incentives and a promise of minimal regulation as he competes for billions of dollars in investment.

While communities in parts of the United States and Europe are questioning the environmental and electricity costs of large data centres, Milei’s government is actively encouraging their development. The president told the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington last month that Argentina would not regulate artificial intelligence, saying: “We are going to leave it free.”

The country’s southern Patagonia region offers several advantages for energy-intensive facilities, including large areas of available land, cooler temperatures, strong winds and access to natural gas from the Vaca Muerta shale formation.

According to visitor records obtained by The Associated Press, Milei and his aides have held meetings with technology industry figures, including venture capitalist Peter Thiel and representatives of OpenAI, Amazon, Google and Oracle.

Polish renewable energy company Green Capital plans to build a $3 billion data centre in Patagonia, which would provide computing capacity to major technology companies. The project has yet to secure a customer. The company has leased 130,000 hectares of land from 14 local landowners.

Green Capital’s Marta Zlotkowska said Patagonia had emerged as the preferred location after the company compared potential sites worldwide, citing access to land and energy resources.

Tax incentives and questions over benefits

Milei is also promoting a scheme that would reduce corporate income tax from 25% to 15% for investments of at least $1 billion in artificial intelligence and other emerging industries. The proposal is awaiting approval by Argentina’s Senate.

However, critics question how much local communities would gain from the projects. Data centres typically employ relatively small workforces, while the proposed incentives do not require companies to reserve computing capacity for Argentine users or disclose their energy and water consumption.

Environmental concerns are particularly strong near Trelew, a city close to Green Capital’s proposed site. Residents say they have limited information about the project’s water requirements, energy sources and potential impact on local resources. Environmental assessments remain underway and permits have not yet been secured.

If operated continuously at its projected peak capacity, the planned facility would consume around 2.7 times the electricity used by Buenos Aires throughout 2025, according to an AP calculation. Green Capital says it intends to generate its own power through wind, solar and gas-fired facilities.

Opposition grows over regulatory safeguards

Some technology experts warn that Milei’s opposition to AI regulation could leave the country exposed to risks involving surveillance, cyberattacks and personal data. Officials have also acknowledged uncertainty over rules governing copyrighted material used to train AI systems and the transfer of personal information abroad.

In Trelew, residents have organised a campaign called “Trelew Free of Data Centres”, reflecting growing concern over the environmental consequences.

Despite the opposition, some local landowners see the projects as an opportunity to diversify income as drought, rising costs and declining wool production put pressure on traditional sheep farming.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is investigating a security breach that resulted in an estimated $6.3 billion in stolen digital assets, in what could become the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. Early findings point to a compromised employee laptop and possible involvement by a North Korean hacking group.

The incident unfolded over less than four hours, with attackers gaining access to several of Binance’s online wallets and transferring funds to addresses under their control.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said its initial investigation suggested that a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer may have provided an entry point. The attackers allegedly used access to a service container to submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions.

The company later stressed that the breach involved multiple factors and was more complex than initially understood. It said there was no evidence that wallet private keys had been exposed.

Binance temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while carrying out security checks. It also revoked authorisation for the affected addresses and began working with law enforcement agencies and blockchain intelligence companies to trace and recover the assets.

Billions in assets frozen

The scale of the breach became clearer on Friday as Binance issued a series of updates. The exchange initially reported that $2.54 billion had been frozen, before raising the figure to $3 billion.

Blockchain data infrastructure company Bitquery estimated that Binance’s withdrawal system had authorised transfers worth approximately $6.3 billion from 17 hot wallets between Thursday night and early Friday morning.

Stablecoin issuers Tether, Circle and Arbitrum, alongside several smaller companies, helped freeze affected assets to prevent further movement. Bitquery estimated that the attackers had exchanged around $729 million in stablecoins before the freezes took effect.

Despite the intervention, approximately $3.1 billion remained under the attackers’ control, primarily in Ether and Bitcoin, according to the company’s analysis. The stolen funds were distributed across nine blockchains, with Ethereum, Bitcoin and TRON among the networks most affected.

Binance said it would cover all losses using company funds and had reserved approximately $6.34 billion for the incident. It also said it had begun recovering affected assets for customers.

The exchange pledged to publish a detailed technical report once the investigation is complete and the findings have been verified. It also plans to release an updated proof of reserves after security measures have been completed.

North Korean group suspected

Blockchain intelligence and cybersecurity firm TRM Labs has attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a hacking group linked to North Korea.

“Based on robust on- and off-chain intelligence, we make this judgment with high confidence,” TRM Labs said.

The group has previously been linked to major cryptocurrency thefts. The FBI identified TraderTraitor as responsible for the $1.5 billion Bybit exchange hack in February 2025.

Binance has not publicly confirmed the identity of the attackers. Its investigation remains ongoing, with law enforcement agencies and blockchain intelligence partners assisting efforts to trace and recover the remaining funds.

The incident has renewed concerns about the security of cryptocurrency exchanges, particularly the risks associated with online wallets and access to internal technology systems.

The European Centre for Digital Rights, known as Noyb, is filing five complaints against US-based artificial intelligence startup Scale AI over alleged violations of workers’ data protection rights on its Outlier platform.

The complaints, announced on Tuesday, October 27, concern the platform’s tracking of freelancers and the safeguards available to workers employed under its freelance contract model. Noyb said it was submitting two complaints in Austria and one each in France, the Netherlands and Italy.

Scale AI, headquartered in San Francisco, operates Outlier, a platform that recruits freelancers and subject-matter experts to help train, assess and improve artificial intelligence models. The service uses a platform-based employment model similar to those used by ride-hailing and food delivery companies.

According to Noyb, Outlier has more than 900,000 freelancers who evaluate and correct AI-generated responses. Its customers include Meta, OpenAI, Google and the US government, meaning workers contribute their expertise to systems developed and used by major technology companies.

The organisation alleges that Outlier collects extensive personal information and requires workers to undergo invasive biometric checks before they can earn money. It argues that the platform’s monitoring practices conflict with European data protection standards and workers’ expectations of privacy.

Noyb also claims that trackers operated by companies including TikTok, LinkedIn and Facebook are placed on workers’ devices while they use the platform. These trackers allegedly give the companies access to personal information, including IP addresses, contact details and data that could be used for targeted advertising and profiling.

“Such constant and extensive tracking while working really goes against all reasonable expectations. Why should LinkedIn or Facebook know which tasks you’re working on?” said Lisa Steinfeld Leiser, a data protection lawyer at Noyb.

The group said the alleged monitoring raised concerns about the handling of personal data in the workplace and the ability of freelancers to protect their information while carrying out assignments.

Noyb further alleges that workers must repeatedly complete biometric verification procedures administered by Persona, a separate company. The process reportedly requires workers to record videos of their faces and upload identification documents.

The complaints come as European authorities increase scrutiny of the artificial intelligence sector. The EU’s AI Office opened investigations into OpenAI and Anthropic earlier this month, reflecting broader concerns about the development and deployment of AI systems.

Regulatory approaches are also diverging internationally. In the United States, President Donald Trump signed an agreement with six major American AI companies allowing them to oversee aspects of their own development practices.

The dispute highlights a growing challenge for the industry: balancing the demand for large-scale human input to train AI systems with the privacy rights of the people providing that work. The allegations against Scale AI have yet to be established through the complaints process.